Wednesday, 20 August 2014

A 1940 scenario, with the familiar story of a German assault to try a split the French and British lines. Tony and Tel are the Germans, Jim is the defending British, with Mark as B.E.F. reinforcements and Matt as the French.

Played out at 6mm and using the hex based system as devised by Dave M. This was used extensively in the past, but long enough ago so that everybody had by now forgotten how to play. In these homebrew rules units are rarely lost forever, but it takes time to regroup and at 1/3rd losses no offensive actions can be taken till back up to strength.

The two German units advance quickly upon the British defending the villages and the German target, the Railway to the far west. They got as far as meeting up in the central village when the British got their reinforcements.

With the French coming in from the South (left flank) and more British from the North (right flank) the German offensive was put in a difficult position, the two German commanders taking differing approaches to the situation. On the left they launched an all out attack on the French; On the right they decided to set up a defensive line at the river.

French Reinforcements

The French came of badly as the Germans attack, supported by full force of the Luftwaffe. The french heavy CharB's were still intact but the supporting infantry and artillery units were lost.

With the French retreating westwards up the table, the Germans decided to pursue them and towards the railway line target, but they themselves became disrupted on the outskirts of the south-western village, as the British in the centre shifted their artillery and spotters to the left. The French start to regroup, using their CharB's as forward observers as they couldn't retreat fast enough. (In the end the quickest way to 'retreat' them was to get them 'destroyed' then regrouped at the location of the HQ, which could move faster.)

Struggle for the Central Village

The Germans finally get some reinforcements, in the shape of some mechanised infantry, that go storming along the road to try and support the existing forces, which had now both become bogged down. The Germans on the right had successfully held of the British reinforcements but had given up the central village in the process.

By now both sides had lost their air support, which had proven to be effective tank killers. The German reinforcements never had a chance to retake the village as they only reached the outskirts when time ran out and the game ends as a stalemate.